Stop Overreacting

[DirtyDawg]

College football is extremely sloppy as a rule, usually. Which makes for a lot of unpredictability, especially early in the season (ie: why it’s fun to watch). The Bama-Georgia game was a perfect example.

It’s full of extremely talented kids, a significant portion of them still learning to play the game for the first time. A lot of those kids played on high school teams whose sole game plan was just find a way to get it to the freak athlete who can outrun/outmuscle everyone else.

And I wasn’t disparaging you for trying to bring a little rationality to the thread. I was just commenting on the futility of it.

If we beat Florida on Saturday, those same fans who think we’re going 6-6 or 7-5 right now will be predicting us to make the playoffs on Sunday.

I agree, that Bama - GA is a great example of why I love college football. I hate that my team lost, but it was an awesome and very entertaining game to watch! Like you stated, CFB is filled with unpredictable and shocking happenings. One of the many reasons it is my favorite sport to follow. Win or lose, I love College Football!

 

[DirtyDawg]

Kind of like Georgia with Alabama. IMO, Georgia still maybe the best team in the SEC. You guys have the best defense IMO. Offense has some questions along with slow start. Another issue with Georgia is living with expectations. Every time Tennessee has gotten high expectations with Heupel, they have started to struggle. Teams need to learn how to handle being in the lime light and being the target. Georgia has figured that out, Tennessee has not. I felt like that impacting the 2022 game. Tennessee wasn't quite ready, culture-wise, for that big matchup of a game.

I agree 100%. In 2022 TN started the season as a team on the rise and it was very reasonable to expect vast improvement, especially with a QB like Hooker. They very quickly transitioned into a team that had the best offense in the nation and a team that many thought might be the the team to beat in the SEC. It was a very quick and drastic change in expectations and it put a ton of pressure on TN. I can’t imagine how hard that can be to adjust to and deal with when it changes so quickly. Also, while I sincerely believe that 22 team was a great team, they were very ahead of schedule and just didn’t have nearly the talent across the board that teams like GA and Bama did that season. These things and likely many other things made it tough for the Vols to live up to how high the expectations quickly rose during the 2022 season.

I’ll also add, who knows what might have happened if Hooker had not been injured? I’m not saying TN would have won the NC, but the importance of Hooker to that offense can’t be overstated. I must admit, with Hendon Hooker that offense legitimately looked like the most explosive offense in CFB.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

He wasn't the reason we lost...with that being said that was a freshman moment.

He will get better but this offensive line and playcalling are much bigger problems right now

He is one of the biggest reasons we lost. Look at his stats this year. He has been nothing but average. Here is where Nico ranks in the SEC

Yards (8th)
Attempts (7th)
Comp (7th)
Avg (7th)
Comp % (8th)
TDs (10th)
Rating (10th)

Sorry but he should be much better than this.